Tyngsboro Meals on Wheels will keep rolling

TYNGSBORO -- While scrambling to save their on-site meal program for seniors in need, the Tyngsboro Senior Center was notified this week the state has granted them an exception.

The center will no longer face the elimination of their beloved Meals on Wheels program, previously set to take effect this October due to cuts at both the state and federal levels.

The senior center and Tyngsboro Council on Aging recently learned from the Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley, Inc. the town's Meals on Wheels program would cease to operate. The Tyngsboro center officials were told they would no longer be able to host "site group" meals for seniors living in both Tyngsboro and Dunstable with their drop-off location removed from the Meals on Wheels route. All door-to-door delivery meals for homebound seniors would still be available, though Tyngsboro volunteers would have to drive the extra approximate five miles down the road to Dracut to pick up those meals.

Seniors who looked forward to the opportunity to socialize every week with friends over a plate of hot food were told they'd no longer have the opportunity locally, but could still travel to Dracut's senior center to eat.

Tyngsboro Senior Center Director Barbara Roche said that was "too much to ask" for seniors who can't travel the distance easily, and make it back in time for senior center activities. It would also cost $5 round-trip to ride a bus to Dracut per senior citizen.

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Roche said as an added consequence she'd already heard of some volunteer drivers dropping out of the program, stating they couldn't swing the extra gas money needed to travel across town lines.

But most of those concerns were laid to rest Tuesday when Maureen Drouin, of the Merrimack Valley elder services group, said she was contacted by the state Executive Office of Elder Affairs. Officials there said if the drivers monitor the hot meal temperatures in traveling from the drop-off location Dracut back to Tyngsboro, they could still have the meals in town. Volunteers will still have to go to Dracut though to deliver the meals to seniors' homes but Roche said this change in plan has been a huge relief.

She said numerous people worried about the program reached out to the state to advocate for the salvation of the site meals. Those who helped bring this story to a happy ending Roche said included Meals on Wheel volunteers, concerned residents and state Rep. Colleen Garry.

Garry, when contacted Tuesday just after the news came from Drouin, said she understood there were certain regulations in place for food safety but she pushed the state to consider a resolution with the most "common sense."

"I made some calls and I wasn't really happy with the red tape I was running into," she said. "I got to the executive office in Boston and talked to the director there and I said, 'It's literally four-and-ahalf miles form one council on aging to the other.' ... It seemed like common sense could be found. They agreed and I am thrilled."

Roche said she is looking forward to Friday where she will share with the seniors involved in the program the good news. They're meeting in the morning for an "end of summer" cookout and Rep. Garry plans to stop by.

Roche said the senior center averages about 25 to 30 meals a week for the on-site group lunches, with four to five people arriving daily. In all, she said the Meals on Wheels program serves about 8,000 seniors between Dunstable and the town.

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